I have a close friend that lives half-way across the country, who has kind of put me in a tough spot.

His 6 year old son is obsessed with Link from Zelda. So much so, that when he took the kid to Disney, whenever the kid saw the Mickey Mouse symbol, he said "Look daddy, it's the Tri-Force!"

It's his son's dream to cosplay an authentic Zelda (Twilight Princess version) for Halloween this year, and he's asked me to help it come true.

We've already agreed to leave out the chain mail part of the costume, as it wouldn't be something practical or safe for a 6 year old to wear. He has a relative who is sewing the fabric pieces of the costume after I look up some patterns to modify for it.

The hard parts of the costume are the leather arm-guard things, and his sword and shield.

Even after Halloween, the child would like to use the costume for everyday play. So the shield & sword has to be durable enough for him to play with, but not dangerous to him or anyone else. I do make my own props, but that is what they are - props. They would easily break if played with too roughly. I could make the leather arm guards out of craft foam, but I have no idea what size to make it because I have no 6 year olds in my family or neighborhood to test them on.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to possibly purchase 6-year-old safe Zelda replicas? Or at least what to make them out of? I would love to make them myself, but my prop-making expertise doesn't go beyond craft foam & sculpey.

Fala_Li

09-06-2008, 01:15 PM

Honestly, I would make the leather arm-guards out of craft foam. It's what I'm using to make my Fran costume, which is very very detailed, and I can barely cut a straight line, but it's still very simple - just time consuming. I think that the craft foam would be very comfortable for a boy that young.

As for the chain mail - there's a very easy way to do this. It might not look as fancy as he wants, but if you are worried about the safety, find a very loose stitched knitted sweater. Stretch it out, modify it to fit him, and spraypaint it silver. :)

or if he has a grandmother etc who can knit, have them knit very loosely. It won't look perfect, but it does have a good effect, very cute on children's costumes.

As for the sword - I'm not sure where you live, but try Value Village if they have one in your area. Right now in my town, they have a very large variety of lightweight, fake plastic swords that you could probably very easily add to to make it look like Link's (paint, more craft foam etc)

I don't think that craft foam would be thick enough to make a shield out of, so I'm afraid I can't think of anything in that department.

I hope any of this helped you out, and good luck in the process of making it! :)

han-pan

09-06-2008, 01:49 PM

Dollar/Halloween/Party store sword and sheild + hot glue + craft foam + paint + creativity = Link's sword & sheild! Yay!
Really though. With Halloween approaching, I'm sure you'll be able to find a ton of those plasticy sword and sheilds that kids get and play with. They sure bash things with them, and as long as he isn't TOO violent I can't imagine that much going wrong. :) Sculpy I would not reccomend because it does break really easily.
And now I must go, for my cat is giving me dirty looks for not petting him. xD

Syrinx

09-06-2008, 08:48 PM

i think craft foam would work for Link's shield.. i came across this link to foam tutorials a little while ago, actually... http://amethyst-angel.com/armormaking_linkshield.html it's not the hylian shield.. but you can of course use the same steps and just modify/paint it. Have fun ^^ although, if he's going to be using the shield for "combat" it probably won't hold up :/ which brings us back to the plastic shields.